Skull Candles

 

My mother forbids me from burning candles in my room, complaining that it's too messy but since I've removed all the paper litter and she works during the day I spend a lot of me time either on the computer with a scented candle burning a few metres away or cleaning my room with it burning. Two years ago or maybe even three I received a large green tea candle and had it displayed on my side of the bathroom vanity and then it mysteriously vanished- I fear that my mother threw it out on my behalf and without my permission. It's a shame really, I've almost burnt out the last of my candles and need some more but maybe I can get myself a large decorative candle in the shape of a skull on my next trip out to the shops.

 

Since I don't want to frighten the few guests I do welcome into my house, perhaps I should get a skull candle in a bright and bold colour with a wicked and mad grin on his bony face? Online store Pretty Dog based in Australia sell the large pink skull and small black set of skulls for $70 Australian and $58 respectively. They also sold the fluorescent yellow skull as well as an impressive wax candle bust of a Victorian woman but those both seem to have sold out. What a shame.

Although I do like the dramatic effect of a large skull in a wild and bright colour, for my needs smaller skulls may be just what the doctor ordered. I have a small dish to burn candles on and collect oozing wax effectively but it may not be practical when burning a large and ornamental candle, if you are indeed meant to burn them at all. Collecting dripping wax underneath a beautifully carved candle by using newspaper doesn't seem fitting at all and would diminish the beauty of the object.

Normally I prefer my skull candles to be plain and as close to the design and contours of a real human skull, but I do like the coiling of the snake around this wax skull in black. It reminds me a lot of the designs for Meadowlark jewellery which is a New Zealand based label, so the combination of deep set empty eye sockets as well as temples and a black snake with shimmering skulls seems very fitting. It would look good on top of a small coffee table with a doily underneath, for ironic and dramatic effect.

 

I can only imagine the sort of havoc I would try to reap on the world with a skull candle in my possession. For starters I would probably also try and find a large Victorian looking collar and dress up as either William Shakespeare with a tiny mustache and a single hoop earring, clasping it in my hand with the other placed firmly on my heart. Then I would make a large speech bubble out of cardboard and write 'Alas Poor Yorick, I knew him well.' I have been studying Shakespeare firmly since Year 10 and received an A on my essay about Hamlet so I think I have earned the right to mock him just a little bit. Of course I would have to do it kindly and tastefully as well.

Crafty Devil

One of the things I looked forward to most during the middle of my exams was all the free time I would have and I hoped and dreamed that I would be blessed with creativity and inginuity to make something come to fruition. Like redecorate and clean my room. I haven't seen so much on any of those fronts yet, since I only had one or two days after my final exam to prepare for going away for a week on the Australian pilgrimage known as 'schoolies'. When I came back though I did do the dishes, sorted out some of the dried laundry, put all my nice clothes on hangers and inside my monstrous wardrobe and scrubbed the shower recess. Nearly an entire week from all that frenzied cleaning and the only other thing I've managed to do is to chuck some of my nastier note books from Calculus and Physics into the recycling bin as well as organise text books to be sold. I still need to photograph all the clothes, books, bits and bobs to be sold on eBay and work out how I will represent the items pages, but that's a worry for January I think.

I have ripped into a few books such as the Diana + hard book issued with the Diana Dreamer camera I sucessfully won at online auction, although I admit some of the material was recycle in a newer edition which I had previously read. I never tire of hearing about the all plastic wonder-camera and how Andy Warhol despised it. I like the new stories though to go with photographs streamed online to the Lomography Society website. I managed to get a third of the way through Terry Pratchett's 'Johnny and the Bomb' yesterday while on the bus and inbetween working yesterday. Another book I've already read but I thoroughly enjoy Prachett and the characters of that particular novel are simply charming. Once I'm bored of vegetating on the couch and developing bed sores I'm sure I'll sooner or later regain my vigour for reading and sort out my bookcase crammed with issues of Vogue and Russh.Colour coordinating my bookshelves would really be lovely and perfect.

My desk looks like a bomb hit it, why can't it be neat and covered in pug ornaments? At times I have almost weakened to splashing out on ceramic deer figurines to decoarte my desk but there are a lot of neat things at my place of retail employment to inspire me as well such as figurines, tea pots and a yellow submarine tea strainer. I am bound to blow most of my earnings on stuff from within the store, had I the space for it in my bedroom.

Illustrations! Another thing I had to give up in the heat of battle in the war against exams! In the last few months I developed the most magnificant callous on my ring finger where my pen rested. Needless to say, extraneous writing and drawing became off limits so as to not exacibate the condition. But after a few weeks of laying off the pencil/ pen I might be able to return again with a vengance and draw to my little heart's content.

 

I like the way clothes and necklaces are hung on the white walls, it makes their colour seem even more bright. For my room though since the floors are hard wood and the walls are plain white, the space is ideal for taking photographs once I reorganise the space, figure out how to properly use it and place myself in front of a tripod. The best fashion blogs have people helping them to take photographs of their outfits and that's the kind of blog I'd like Secret Hipster to be, only I'm ashamed of my body at times and I don't flatter myself. I need more time to work this out and create outfits at the moment. For now, I will settle for showcasing amazing photographs of jewellery and fashion pieces with running commentary.

Another great love I had to abandon was crafting things and recreating bits and bobs. I think a trip to my local library is in order; to kick-start my enthusiasm for reading and borrow some craft books. Reading at my leisure always turns out bad; I work best under pressure and when there's a book with a time limit only then can I seem to read it.
There's always some fascinating books on crafts to be had and I'd like to try my hand at some of those things, particularly stiching and sewing. The little gameboy original in this last photograph is something I'd like to make myself, byt finding exactly the right coloured buttons for the A and B buttons might prove to be a challenge. Push come to shove, I could find that colour shirt at an Op Shop, but it and then detach the buttons for my own devices.
If there are any exciting (although I very much doubt that) new developments to my artistic flair and personal style, you will be sure to hear of it on this blog.